Karnivool

Formed as a high school band in 1997 to play Nirvana and Carcass covers at parties, Karnivool, led by singer Ian Kenny, later with a revamped line-up began writing original material. In 1999 with a line-up consisting of Kenny on vocals, Andrew Goddard on lead guitar, Andrew Brown on bass, and Brett McKenzie on drums, the band released their debut eponymously-titled EP. A follow-up EP “Persona” was released in 2001 and Karnivool subsequently won the Western Australia State Final of the National Campus Band Competition.

Karnivool’s debut full-length was written entirely by Goddard and marked a change of personnel with Steve Judd coming in on drums, Jon Stockman in on bass, and Mark Hosking joined as rhythm guitarist. The album was originally released independently in 2005 however the band later signed with Bieler Bros. Records who reissued the album in 2007. Karnivool supported the album with an extensive worldwide tour and later covered the Gotye song “The Only Way” in contribution to the compilation album “Mixed Blood”.

Ahead of the band’s sophomore album “Sound Awake”, Karnivool released the lead single “Set Fire to the Hive”, which peaked at No. 11 on the AIR Top 20 Singles chart. Aided by the single, the album released May 9, 2009, debuted at No. 2 on the AIR Album Chart. Karnivool embarked on another worldwide tour in support, including shows in the U.S., New Zealand, the UK and India. The band took a break after the tour allowing singer Ian Kenny to work with his other band Birds of Tokyo, however returned in 2011.

Karnivool’s third full-length “Asymmetry” was issued by Density/Cymatic Records in 2013 and topped the Australian Albums Chart. The album spawned the singles “The Refusal” and the six-minute long “We Are”, and is noted for being the band’s most complex and contemplative album to date.

By and large, I think it’s safe to say that heavy metal bands who take heavy metal seriously have missed the whole point of the genre by a country mile. Ronnie James Dio didn’t pose with a sword and shield singing about killing dragons for new metal bands to dress entirely in black and do nothing but grimace for entire concerts, after all! Heavy metal is an inherently ridiculous genre, what else can one say about a genre that began with bored geeks writing songs about the devil and/or their Dungeons and Dragons campaigns?

It takes a very special band to be able to pull off serious metal and in the form of Tesseract; we have a group whose music could make them stand alongside System Of A Down, Faith No More and Behemoth as heavy bands you don’t laugh at or even with. The band began with its guitarist Alec “Acle” Kahney, who wanted to branch out into more experimental solo work while still performing with his band Mikaw Barish. As Kahney put more and more of his time and effort into his solo work he started posting clips of his guitar playing on internet forums like Sevenstring.org and taking the feedback he’d get into account.

A few others were composing, producing and releasing music completely independently as well, and the resulting genre, a mix of progressive metal, ambient and electronica, was called Djent. Named after the onomatopoeic word for the palm muted guitar riffs that they played, this meant that Kahney was at the forefront of an entire movement. As interest in what he was creating grew and grew, he started to turn his demos and riffs into full songs and put together a full band that came together in 2007. He christened the resulting band Tesseract and their first release came the same year, a demo CD containing parts of what would later make up their debut album.

Since then the band has released two critically acclaimed studio albums, 2011’s “One” and 2013’s “Altered State”, which sealed their reputation as not just one of the most exciting new bands in British metal but also one of the most artistically accomplished. How many other bands have included a 27 minute song split into six suites on their debut album? How many have then followed that up with a second album that’s a 51 minute continuous piece of music divided into four sections? Very, very few, that’s who. What’s more is that it’s working. That second album? The 51 minute continuous piece of music? Charted on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

The band have toured with everyone from Periphery to The Devin Townsend Project and in 2014, sold out London’s 1’145 capacity Scala with ease. There is a bright future ahead for these guys and they’ve achieved the success they’ve had through sheer integrity and without a hint of compromise. They are the future of heavy music, and that is very good news indeed.